return

1320 the return of the king
take care of yourself, and come straight back as soon as you
have settled the ruffians!’
When Sam got back he found the whole village roused.
Already, apart from many younger lads, more than a hundred
sturdy hobbits were assembled with axes, and heavy hammers,
and long knives, and stout staves; and a few had hunting-bows.
More were still coming in from outlying farms.
Some of the village-folk had lit a large fire, just to enliven
things, and also because it was one of the things forbidden
by the Chief. It burned bright as night came on. Others at
Merry’s orders were setting up barriers across the road at
each end of the village. When the Shirriffs came up to the
lower one they were dumbfounded; but as soon as they saw
how things were, most of them took off their feathers and
joined in the revolt. The others slunk away.
Sam found Frodo and his friends by the fire talking to old
Tom Cotton, while an admiring crowd of Bywater folk stood
round and stared.
‘Well, what’s the next move?’ said Farmer Cotton.
‘I can’t say,’ said Frodo, ‘until I know more. How many of
these ruffians are there?’
‘That’s hard to tell,’ said Cotton. ‘They moves about and
comes and goes. There’s sometimes fifty of them in their
sheds up Hobbiton way; but they go out from there roving
round, thieving or ‘‘gathering’’ as they call it. Still there’s
seldom less than a score round the Boss, as they names him.
He’s at Bag End, or was; but he don’t go outside the grounds
now. No one’s seen him at all, in fact, for a week or two; but
the Men don’t let no one go near.’
‘Hobbiton’s not their only place, is it?’ said Pippin.
‘No, more’s the pity,’ said Cotton. ‘There’s a good few
down south in Longbottom and by Sarn Ford, I hear; and
some more lurking in the Woody End; and they’ve sheds at
Waymeet. And then there’s the Lockholes, as they call ’em:
the old storage-tunnels at Michel Delving that they’ve made
into prisons for those as stand up to them. Still I reckon